LinkedIn Must Pay Employees $6M For Unpaid Overtime

What happens when a company built on human resources and professional networking doesn’t act so professional? In the case of LinkedIn, the business is ordered to pay employees $6 million for unpaid overtime and damages.

The U.S. Department of Labor announced today that LinkedIn agreed to pay $3.3 million in overtime back wages and $2.5 million in liquidated damages to 359 former and current employees in California, Illinois, Nebraska and New York for violating the overtime and record-keeping provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

According to investigators with the Wage and Hour Division of the Dept. of Labor, LinkedIn failed to record, account and pay for all hours worked in a workweek.

FLSA requires that covered, nonexempt employees be paid at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour for all hours worked, plus time and one-half their regular hourly rates for hours worked beyond 40 per week.

In addition to paying the back wages and damages, LinkedIn agreed to enter an enhanced compliance agreement with the Dept. that states the company will: provide compliance training and distribute its policy prohibiting off-the-clock work to all nonexempt employees and their managers; meet with managers of current affected employees to remind them that overtime work must be recorded and paid for; and remind employees of LinkedIn’s policy prohibiting retaliation against any employee who raises concerns about workplace issues.

A spokesperson from LinkedIn told Business Insider that the issue stems from “not having the right tools in place for some employees and their managers to track hours properly; prior to the DoL approaching us, we had already begun to remedy this. LinkedIn has made every effort possible to ensure each impacted employee has been made whole.”